Google developing technology that monitors 'problematic phrases'

3 years ago

(Liz Klimas) Google has filed a patent for a feature that would watch what users are writing and alert them to when they might be violating policies (company, local, or even federal) with their content.

Dubbed the “Policy Violation Checker” in the patent filed May 2, the system would identify “problematic phrases” in documents like emails or other online documents run on Google’s Drive like presentations. But it’s not limited here. Google envisions the program being run through mobile devices, televisions, set-top boxes or other processors.

“A textual phrase entered by a user is captured. The textual phrase is compared against a database of phrases previously identified as being problematic phrases,” the abstract of the patent states. “If the textual phrase matches a phrase in the database, the user is alerted via an in-line notification, based on the detected context of the electronic document.”

In conducting such an analysis, Google believes it would be highlighting to the user text that might have legal implications or policy violations. These could range from company policies to local, state and federal laws.